Description

Important Choice AU Miners' Bank Ten Dollar

(1849) $10 Miners' Bank Ten Dollar AU55 PCGS. K-1, R.6.
Plain or normal border, raised rim. The Miners' Bank was an early
gold rush San Francisco business. The firm issued one, three, and
five dollar notes on March 1, 1849, and later issued undated
fractional denominations. Ten dollar gold pieces were struck prior
to August 9, 1849, since the firm's president and cashier, Stephen
A. Wright and Samuel Haight, unsuccessfully petitioned the customs
collectors on that date to accept their coins. The New Orleans Mint
assayed examples of the ten dollar coins on October 16 of that
year. The firm was dissolved on January 14, 1850.
Along with other 1849 private gold coiners, with the exception of
Moffat & Co., the Miners' Bank coins were discredited by local
assays. An April 11, 1850 report in the Alta California newspaper
noted: "Brokers refuse to touch it at less than 20 percent
discount." Most were eventually melted by bankers and other
arbitragers, often with their alloy converted to U.S. Assay Office
"slugs."
Two different varieties were produced. Specialists believe the
orange-gold (copper alloy) pieces (Kagin 1) were die trials
produced in the east, while the green-gold (silver alloy) pieces
(Kagin 2) were struck in native California gold. Donald Kagin
suggests the Kagin-1 coins were struck with a collar, after which
the obverse and reverse dies were transported to California, where
the Kagin-2 coins were struck without a collar.
The present piece is well struck and exhibits considerable bright
luster. No marks are consequential. An identifier is provided by a
mint-produced lintmark on each side of the left (facing) wing near
the wingtip. The number of territorial gold type collectors vastly
exceeds the number of surviving Miner's Bank gold pieces. Listed on
page 357 of the 2008 Guide Book. Population: 4 in 55, 5
finer (11/07).
Ex: American Numismatic Rarities, 8/06, lot 1127, which realized
$63,250.
From The Madison Collection. (NGC ID# 2BBD, PCGS# 10236)